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Further strikes threat as NHS Logistics protest DHL move
Page 8
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The battle for the soul of the NHS is hotting up this week with another strike planned among NHS Logistics workers. Bridget Carter reports.
WORKERS AT NHS Logistics were due to stage their second 24hour strike this week as part of a protest against the government's decision to contract out its logistics operation to German firm DHL.
The union Unison warns that more strikes are on the cards unless the government promises to protect workers' pay and conditions when the logistics contract transfers to DHL on 1 October.
Unison spokeswoman Anne Mitchell says 800 union members at depots in Cheshire, Kent, Derbyshire, Sussex and West Yorkshire were due to stop work at 1 Opm on Tuesday night and form picket lines to express their concern about the new contracts.
This action follows a strike on 'Lliursday 21 September.
The union has written to Health Minister Andy Burnham stressing the need for assurances over preservation of workers' conditions as part of the f1.6bn deal. And the matter was to be raised at this week's Labour Party conference.
"What our general secretary is doing is calling for a halt in the transfer while all of these problems come to light and are investigated:" Mitchell explains, "The contract was signed in a huge hurry and there has not been time for assurances on pay and con-ditions to be sorted out."
Despite moves by hospitals to stockpile supplies, she says the two strikes will have a cumulative effect on the NHS stocks.
Mitchell says the union is against privatisation because in previous cases when parts of the NHS have been sold off it has led to a worsening of services and staff cuts.
"You only need to look at when they started outsourcing the contract for the cleaners," she points out. "They cut the number of cleaners in half and we have seen a huge rise in the number of M RSA cases which has caused a lot of problems.
"NHS Logistics was a non-profit organisation and gave hack Om to the NHS last year. But DHL has shareholders to look after," she says.
Last week's strike was the largest to be staged within the health service for 20 years audit was the first to involve NHS logistics workers.
• Up to 5,000 union members in DHL's express parcels division are voting on strike action over proposals to sack 3,000 permanent staff and replace them with 2,500 casual workers.
The GMB Union claims that DHL also has plans to close 20 of its 85 local depots and four out of its five hubs.